Cai Cai, Balão

I've seen quite a few Eddie Cantor films and some of them are wonderful films. However, Cantor also made a few clunkers--and STRIKE ME PINK is one of them.

The film starts out well. Cantor plays a milquetoast owner of a dry cleaning business. Because he's so afraid, he takes a correspondence course to make him an assertive man. This aspect of the film is pretty funny and I really was hooked.

When Cantor's friend graduates college, Cantor is offered a job running the amusement park owned by his friend's mother. They hire him because he acts tough and assertive--and they need that because hoods (led by Brian Donlevy and William Frawley) are trying to force the park to place crooked slot machines on the property. The last three managers all met with "unfortunate accidents" or just disappeared, so it looks as if Cantor is in over his head.

Again, so far so good--the set up is just fine and the film is a mildly amusing comedy. However, one problem is noticeable half-way through the film. While Cantor himself often sings cute little songs in his films, this time there are some Busby Berkely-like production numbers and the addition of a lady singer that frankly didn't work. The humor, at times, took a back seat to irrelevant musical numbers. The dumb plot involving the dark-haired lounge singer just didn't work at all.

By the middle of the film, the quality and humor started to fade. However, towards the end the film got really, really bad--like the writers had no idea what to do with the film. Going from a gentle comedy to a "wacky" and outrageous comedy just failed miserably. All too often, Cantor wasn't even in a scenes--just his stunt double. Additionally, with the awful roller coaster scene, too much of a reliance on rear-projection and dippy stunts sank the film. At this point, I just couldn't wait for it to end. It's a shame really, as I wanted to love this film--too bad it all turned to crap at the end.

If you have not seen "Whoopee!" or "Palmy Days" or "Kid Millions" or "Roman Scandals" or "The Kid from Spain", you may think that "Strike Me Pink" is a pretty funny comedy. However, compared to the films mentioned above, it just doesn't make it. Instead of writing for his usual "frightened and nervous little man" persona, Cantor is given a script which would be better suited to Harold Lloyd. The musical numbers, though serviceable, are not even close to the great songs introduced in the previous pictures. Casting Ethel Merman, so perfect in "Kid Millions", as the romantic lead was a total mistake. Parkyakarkus and Bill Frawley are descent comic foils for Cantor, but somehow it all seems a little contrived. If you have seen the other films Cantor made for Goldwyn, this one may be a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong! There are some funny bits in the film. It's certainly not a total disaster, but compared to the films which came before it, it leaves much to be desired.

I haven't seen the whole movie, but just happened upon the last 15 or 20 minutes on TCM. Most of this time was filled by a chase scene that was actually kind of exciting (though it strained credulity that Our Hero wasn't killed about 8 times) and often funny. I was often thinking, "How did they do that?" I don't know about the rest of the film, but his part was definitely worth seeing.

An interesting aspect of changing technology was that the object of the chase was to get/keep possession of a phonograph record, presumably the only copy of an important recorded conversation. It wouldn't have happened in the digital age!

The last of 6 films starring or including the inimical Eddie Cantor, produced by Sam Goldwyn Studios from 1930-36, which includes pre and post code films. It's also the only one that does not include a segment of Cantor in black face, if that's important to you. I suspect the inclusion of blackface is one reason why Cantor films have not been frequently shown on public TV. In 1937, he starred in a 20th Century-Fox film: "Äli Baba Goes to Town", which is also worth a look if you like his films in general.

We have several threads pursued. Eddy(Pink) plays his usual overly timid nerd character, who initially runs a shop where he offers various services, including a machine that breaks in new shoes. He gives up his shop to become the manager of the amusement park Dreamland. There, he gets mixed up with a gang who want to fill Dreamland with crooked slot machines, threatening to dispose of him like they did the last half dozen managers who refused to cooperate. Eddie is much helped and encouraged by his secretary Claribel(Sally Eilers).

Eddie has a fixation on nightclub singer Joyce Lennox (Ethel Merman). The slot machine gang figure out a way to use this obsession to blackmail Eddie into allowing the slot machines in Dreamland, Ethel being a friend of the gang.

To effectively deal with the gang and his other duties, Eddie mail orders a book and record to teach him self-confidence. In addition to assuming a confident stance in the face of adversity, he learns about "the magnetic eye"(one eye shut), the "magnetic stance" (leaning far forward) and the "magnetic finger"(arm and forefingers thrust forward)(This could be interpreted as a stab at self-help advisers, in general). Anyway, this approach seems to mesmerize his adversaries.

The last part involves a classic silent film-like chase of Eddie by the slot machine gang, including a race on a roller coaster, followed by a nail-biting balloon ride, then inadvertent participation in a trapeze act. All this time, Eddie is trying to protect a 78rpm recording of a full confession by the gang of murdering the prior managers, and the phoniness of the murder charge against Ethel. This whole sequence much reminds me of something silent film luminary Harold Lloyd might do.

The music and dancing is nothing special. Ethel sings "First You Have me High" on a pitch black stage, except for her face: too long and not interesting to me. Eddie sings "The Lady Dances" on stage, abetted by chorus girls and specialty dancer and singer Dona Drake(also known as Rita Rio), who wiggles and gyrates her body, along with dancing and singing. Then, Eddie and Ethel sing "Calabash Pipe" while atop a Ferris wheel, followed by their singing it while imagined senior citizens in a buggy. Later, Ethel sings "Shake it off with Rhythm", abetted by a dancing chorus, in a big production.

Dona Drake was a very light-skinned African American, who passed herself off as an exotic-looking Caucasian. She was very energetic, as shown in this film. Sometimes, as in this film, she was a specialist singer and/or dancer. In other films, such as the Crosby-Hope "The Road to Morocco", she had a significant role in the screenplay. Seems like she should have had a much more visible Hollywood career.

Of the 5 members of the shot machine gang, I was already familiar with Brian Donlevy, William Frawley, and Jack La Rue..... Harry Parke served as Eddie's supposed body guard, who popped up every now and then. When Eddie and Ethel took a boat ride through the pitch black Tunnel of Love, we hear kissing sounds, but Eddie protested that he didn't kiss her. Turns out it was Parke, hiding in the back seat. Parke also accompanied Eddie in that perilous balloon ride.

If you like Eddie's comedies in general, you should like this one, despite the disparaging remarks of some reviewers. Currently, it's part of a 4 film collection of Eddie's comedies, I can recommend.

Several numbers in the film are worth a look just because of the clear influence of Busby Berkeley. The numbers show sophistication and modernist sensibility very different from the tone and style of the rest of the material, and very Berkelesque. In the "High and Low" number,for example, filmed mostly in closeups, Merman's white skin is strongly silhouetted against her very black costume, which itself blends into the black background. Its a chiaroscuro effect highly reminiscent of Winnie Shaw's "Lullaby of Broadway" number in Gold Diggers of 1933.

Later, in "Shake Me Off With Rhythm", the shiny dance floor reflects the dancers so completely that a reflection begins to dance on its own, itself a reminder of Bojangles by Fred Astaire in Swingtime, which was released in the same year. At another point, dancers intertwine so that their one's arm become the other's legs and it becomes difficult to distinguish them, their intertwined bodies still reflected by the shiny floor in a very modernist composition. It all feels like Busby, off center, inventive, playful. Worth a look.